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More than 200 Indonesian fruit pickers have sought diplomatic help since July after facing difficulties working in Britain this season, the nation’s embassy has revealed.
The Guardian spoke to a pair of workers posted to a farm in Scotland that supplies berries to M&S, Waitrose, Tesco and Lidl. They claim they were sent back to the fleet if they couldn’t work fast enough and were left with huge debts to pay.
The embassy says the true number of people experiencing problems is likely to be much higher, as many were seeking help on behalf of many workers on the same farms – and others did not have the confidence to contact the embassy.
He says the most commonly reported problem is the lack of work in the fields, especially for those who arrived very late in the season. Some didn’t start until the harvest was over, giving them little chance to pay off the debts they incurred when they signed up.
A seasonal worker visa allows people to come and work in the UK for up to six months but there is no guarantee of employment for that period.
One man who started at Castleton Farm in Aberdeenshire in July said he was repeatedly sent back to the fleet after only a few hours in the field because he couldn’t meet challenging picking targets, leaving him badly in debt.
The Indonesian worker said he borrowed money in April to pay a local agent in Java more than £4,650 to come to Britain. The man said the work he was offered in Scotland meant he usually took home around £200 a week, which had little impact on his debts.
He was eventually dismissed after two months and moved to a farm in Kent as a result of a red warning for slow work. The job there lasted until early November, leaving him over £1,700 in debt and without a job.
The British Retail Consortium said supermarkets sourcing from Castleton were “concerned by these allegations and are investigating as a matter of urgency”.
Castleton Fruit managing director Ross Mitchell said he could not comment on specific cases but the farm had “a disciplinary process, like all employers dealing with performance-related issues” which was audited annually and heavily regulated. He said the well-being of the workers was “extremely important” and that it employed about 1,000 people a year, more than 70% of whom had returned.
Mitchell said the farm had 106 workers from Indonesia this year, 70 of whom were still there. He said they work an average of 41.81 hours, with an average weekly gross pay of £450.68, before charges such as housing costs are taken out.
Mitchell said the farm is concerned about “payments sought by third-party agents” and that they rely on “approved agents to conduct due diligence to ensure workers are not paying excessive fees.”
Mitchell said he first became aware of the charges levied on the workers when he was already in the field and was “very concerned” and immediately reported it to the agent, authorities and customers. He added: “We hoped that the relevant bodies would act on the issue.”
According to the latest figures, more than 1,450 Indonesians have come to Britain on seasonal worker visas. They were supplied by Ag Recruitment, one of four UK agencies licensed to recruit using the scheme.
The Gangmasters and Labor Abuse Authority (GLAA) is investigating the Indonesian recruitment of AGs after the Guardian revealed in August that workers reported being owed up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a season. The AG denied any wrongdoing and said it knew nothing about Indonesian brokers extorting money.
An embassy official who runs support for workers in the UK said initially people sought help with their immigration status because they thought the visa could be transferred to another job. “Then they started coming to us with problems about targets on farms,” they said.
The official said that problems with living conditions in a small number of caravans have also been reported, especially as the weather turns cold. They added: “Currently most people are contacting us because there is not much work in the fields. They try to transfer but the AG tells them there is no other work.”
The Guardian had earlier reported this AG had no previous experience in Indonesia and sought help from Jakarta-based Al Zubara Manpower, who in turn went to brokers on other islands who charged exorbitant fees from those they represented, according to an Al Zubara agent.
Director of the AG, Douglas Ames, said: “Workers should never have to pay anyone a fee to get a job in the UK; This is UK law. However, unfortunately not all countries we have historically recruited from have this law so we are actively working to educate citizens overseas that they should not pay anyone a fee to get a job in the UK or anywhere else.
The AG said it was working closely with the embassy while the Indonesian workers were in the UK and did not recognize the figure of more than 200 seeking help. It said the AG “helped a fraction of the number” and “most workers had very minor problems”.
Al Zubara director Yulia Guyeni said she had “no knowledge” of brokers charging more than agreed-upon amounts for flights and visas. She said the AG was responsible for finding farms in the UK and “we send workers based on the AG’s request”.
Guyeni claimed that the Indonesian government had investigated the overcharging issue and concluded that there was no wrongdoing.
Guyeni added that “we only charge based on the placement agreement that the workers signed” and that they should know the correct price because it was on paper. She said of debt: “It’s not our responsibility because we don’t encourage them to go into debt. They are old enough and responsible enough to understand the consequences of debt.”
A GLAA spokesman said: “Where there are allegations of labor exploitation we will investigate and take appropriate action if our licensing standards are not fully adhered to … scheme operators are fully aware of their responsibilities to workers.”
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